Cherie Blair says women can never have it all

Cherie Blair, the former prime minister’s wife, says that she's never met a
working mother "who didn’t constantly feel that she wasn’t doing either job
very well.”

Cherie Blair, the former prime minister’s wifePhoto: Eddie Mulholland

By Tim Walker

7:30AM GMT 31 Jan 2012

Even if the arch feminist Germaine Greer did once dismiss Cherie Blair as a mere “concubine”, women’s rights have always been close to the heart of the former prime minister’s wife.

Now, however, Mrs Blair, who runs a foundation for women, says it is a “myth” that members of her sex can ever have it all. “I've never met a working mother who didn’t constantly feel that she wasn’t doing either job very well,” says the woman who juggled being the wife of the country’s leader with a legal career and raising four children.

Other women in the political arena who have made surprising admissions to the latest Easy Living magazine include Louise Mensch, the Conservative MP, who features in a photo shoot in January’s GQ in a fetching leather-fronted Dolce & Gabanna skirt and L’Agence silk blouse.

“Being groomed and being smart is what impresses people – not trading on your looks,” she says. “If you do, women will resent you and men will trivialise you.”

Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary, takes a pragmatic view. “Get great childcare,” she counsels working women. “I couldn’t have done my job for the past ten years without my mum. Helping with the kids when we’re under real pressure, she really is the fourth emergency service.”

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There is, meanwhile, an air of resignation in Hillary Clinton’s comments to the magazine. “You can’t be on the merry-go-round forever,” she says. “I’m retiring in 2012 – I want more time for myself and my friends.”